Ancient Polynesians Managed to Sail Vast Distances

On the islands of the Pacific Ocean, modern science is catching up to primeval folklore. Researchers say an ancient stone tool found on a Polynesian atoll probably came from Hawaii nearly 2,500 miles away, Ben Finney reports in Science, supporting legends that Stone Age seafarers settled the islands near Tahiti well before the first European explorers reached them. Unwilling to believe primitive islanders capable of such feats, the Europeans surmised that the islands were formerly mountaintops on continents that were later submerged, and the islanders were the survivors. In the late 1700s, after British explorer Captain Cook found similarities between Tahitian words and speech on islands far to the west, he gave more credence to tales of long-ago navigators riding seasonal spells of westerly winds on distant ocean voyages.

An adze

Over the past century, scientists have tried to trace the migratory paths suggested by Polynesian oral traditions, with mixed success. The latest attempt, by researchers Kenneth D. Collerson and Marshall I. Weisler, involved analyzing with trace elements and isotopes 19 basalt adzes, or wood-shaping tools, discovered on East Polynesian atolls about 70 years ago, to determine their origin. The composition of the basalt from 18 of the adzes could be traced to islands in the area. But one adze was composed of hawaiite from the Kaho’olawe island of Hawaii. Mr. Finney says such chemical sourcing, used with other approaches such as DNA analysis, promises fresh discoveries. For instance, “a bone of a Polynesian chicken excavated in Chile has recently provided archaeological support for Polynesians having reached South America in pre-Columbian times.”

Thus the link Thor Heyerdahl long claimed between those ancient societies probably existed, although it was likely the Polynesians, not the South Americans, who crossed the waves to establish it. In an interview, Mr. Finney says Mr. Heyerdahl, famous for his Kon-Tiki raft expedition, had a “false paradigm,” because he believed pre-Columbian explorers couldn’t have sailed against global trade winds. Mr. Heyerdahl didn’t take into account seasonal variations.

Image courtesy of Jane Willcock, Anthropology Museum, The University of Queensland